


Patience & A Sculptors Stone

by quiznakeries



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Canon Compliant, Fix-It, M/M, and a touch of porn, background allurance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-24
Updated: 2020-04-24
Packaged: 2021-03-02 03:01:37
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,007
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23828026
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quiznakeries/pseuds/quiznakeries
Summary: Keith saw his future in the quantum abyss.
Relationships: Keith/Shiro (Voltron)
Comments: 10
Kudos: 71





	Patience & A Sculptors Stone

**Patience and a sculptors stone**

_ Prompt 5: Scar worship _

  
  
  


Keith saw his future in the quantum abyss.

  
  


When he first got back, accompanied by a long lost mother, a glow in the dark teleporting wolf, a woman of a species not supposed to exist, and news about Lotor that turned all the coalition’s plans inside out, it was easy enough to focus. There was so much going on, a greater mission at hand, and Keith knew he had to see it through before anything else. But he reveled in the reaction he’d seen in Shiro, how he lost his composure, stumbled on his words when Keith stepped off that altean pod. He lived on that, replayed it in his mind too many times to count.

Because the things he’d seen on the space whale were so many. Future is a tricky thing, living and always changing. So many versions of his future, so many snippets of lives he might have had appeared in the waves of space time. Some were frightening, terrifying enough to leave him sleepless for days. Others were so ridiculous, there was just no way they’d ever happen. But some. Some showed him everything, made it clear that all he wanted in his life was within reach if he played his cards right. If he kept everyone safe, if they won this war, what always seemed a distant dream could -  _ would _ \- come true for him.

He vowed to himself to make it so.

And it was a roller coaster, so many ups and downs and unexpected twists of fate he started losing his faith more than once. His Shiro, the real Shiro, was dead. But Keith brought him back. Then Shiro lost himself in his second chance, disconnected and confused by everything he’d been through, and for the longest time; Keith believed he’d lost him.

It was too painful to handle, after everything he’d done to make things happen with Shiro, seeing it go so wrong. 

So Keith left. Left Shiro and earth behind, set on living out his days reliving memories that never were while rebuilding a universe quite as disarray as himself. It seemed only fitting.

Four years, a wedding that gave him nightmares, and a few miserable attempts at putting his heart in a box later, he woke in the middle of the night to a determined roar vibrating through him, across time and space between him and Black. And when he crawled out of his cot to see why his lion was acting up, he found himself nowhere near the hanger in New Daibazaal’s royal castle where they’d been when he went to sleep. Instead, he was looking at green and yellow nebulas, miles and miles of space junk, and a place so familiar he feels a stab of pain. Of loss, and stupid dreams.

“How did you get us here?” He stared out into the Quantum Abyss, over the wild planes of the whale’s back where he and Krolia spent so much time once. Black was perched on the tallest peak of the animals back, creating for them a stunning view that Keith has sometimes missed. He shook his head, knowing the lion could read his feelings perfectly well. “I don’t see how this place would help, buddy. Unless we’re planning to stay for good.”

There was a reason he’d taken to sleeping in the old comfort of his lion instead of in his room that night. It was the night before the annual dinner with the paladins, that insane night of every earth year when they’d gather in memory of Allura and pretend like they hadn't lost touch. Like Keith didn’t run away, like Shiro didn’t go through a bigger personality change than when he was actually replaced by a different person, and like Lance wasn’t living the opposite of the life we wished for. Punishing himself for not being able to save Allura back then.

Keith wouldn’t admit it to anyone there, but at that point all he wanted was for the damn thing to be canceled.

But no one did, and so with less than twenty four hours to go until he’d have to face it all, Keith couldn’t find rest anywhere else.

He didn’t count on the mechanical beast to kidnap him.

Keith sat down at the helm, watched the world he once knew so intimately with a conflicted heart. It grew quiet, Black’s purr fading into nothing and allowing Keith to hear the strange noises of the bird like creatures hovering inches above ground, the distant rush of the river. The vents opened to let him breathe that air, take in the smell of char and smoke mixing with damp earth and those unique cactus blossoms that grew near his and Krolia’s home there.

Tears pricked at his eyes at the onslaught of memories these impressions carried with them, and the ache in his heart he’d been trying so hard to suppress cane bursting forward. Images began to flutter past his eyes when they fell closed and he opened them again with a pained gasp.

When he looked back outside and saw the flash begin to expand from far away, he shook his head in a panic, because whatever the hell it was  _ he didn’t want to see anymore _ .

~~

It was unlike anything the abyss had ever shown him before. It wasn’t a flash of memory, a scene from somewhere down his timeline like it’d always been. Because apparently, such things weren’t painful enough.

This was like a movie from hell, with all the best and worst scenes from what could have been something absolutely beautiful, but that fate decided years ago to deny him. Before him he saw his first moments with Shiro, the early stages of the stupid puppy crush he’d never shake. He saw himself when Shiro left for Kerberos, and he saw when he came back. It was a whirlwind of late night talks and warm embraces, love and support he’d cherished more than anything. He saw the cloning facility, felt the pain of the searing blade brandishing his skin and the acceptance when he fell into nothingness with Shiro’s hand in his. He relived the moment Shiro came back to life in his arms, the overwhelming urge to close the distance and kiss him right then and there in front of everyone. 

The moment when he spotted Shiro and Sendak like pebbles in the desert sand, when rage and his need to be close to Shiro weaved together into a stupid but effective last attack on the galran devil. He could have crushed him under Black’s paw and been done with it, but the thought didn’t even occur to him until much later.

He saw each and every moment he’d ever spent with Shiro. The good, the bad, the terrible. The soft and the fun and the ones that made his cheeks heat up. It was like falling in love, all over again.

He didn’t even notice when his eyes had closed once more, but when the vision faded, he knew what he would see if he opened them.

“You didn’t take us anywhere, did you?”

There was a non confirmative rumble, and Keith couldn’t help but scoff.

He opened his eyes to find himself in the hangar like earlier, but despite not having moved at all, the journey showed him where he needed to go.

~~

  
  


He wasn’t sure what he was going to do, when he arrived at New Altea. There really wasn’t any good way to stand up in front of someone and say “leave him, you should be with me.”

But of all the ways he thought it might go down, what happened wasn’t it.

He chickened out during the day, chickened out after dinner. It was in the middle of the night once more and he was standing with his forehead resting against the cool surface of his bedroom door. He was mustering courage to march down the hall. But the familiar roar of five Voltron lions calling out to their paladins shook him straight out of his thoughts and hurtling into a completely different course of action. He ran down the hall in the opposite direction, and out onto the courtyard. The others were doing the same as him, and they watched the lions rise. Then, in a moment, a deafening silence fell upon them. Keith never noticed, was so entirely used to having Black at the back of his conscience he didn’t think there was anything to hear, until it was gone. The lions were not in this realm anymore, gone somewhere beyond the reach of even their bonds.

They thought it was over, then. After a few minutes of staring at the empty space the lions left behind, the paladins of Voltron gathered in a ring there on the courtyard, and Shiro had the first words coming off his lips when a brilliant light sliced through the night sky. A pillar of radiant magic, swirling like smoke in a tube, shot down from above, straight onto the table still standing from dinner earlier.

Lance was first to move, stumbling off to hop on the table top into the light, and catch the figure appearing out of nothing in his arms.

Keith couldn’t breathe, didn’t dare disturb the dream-like scene taking place before his eyes with even a breath, a blink of his eyes. A large, warm hand curled over his shoulder, and they watched Allura find purchase on her feet. She whispered something, and with a grin, Lance said something back. They laughed, and with the lack of other fitting responses, so did Keith and the others.

~~

  
  


None of them slept a second longer that night. They celebrated together, leftover food and something much better than nunvil around the table for a second time in a few hours.

As magical as it was, seeing Allura again, and with her, the life she brought back to Lance, Keith found his mind wandering. He was sitting next to Shiro, pressed close now with another person at the table. The hand on Keith’s shoulder, it was still there. Warm and solid, and feeling too natural for Keith to not think about it. Even when they’ve been apart for so long, even when they’ve lost touch and despite Keith’s broken heart, the bond remains. And that night, it’s radiant. Unmistakable. 

It was almost lunch time, when the lack of sleep begined to pull paladin after paladin off to bed for a nap. In the end, only Keith and Shiro remained.

“I still can’t sleep in the middle of the day.” Shiro explained, toying with a rumpled napkin which he folded into nonsense shapes. True to his military lifestyle, naps had never been part of Shiro’s day to day life. It felt good to know, the little things hadn’t changed.

Keith watched him fold his napkin over and over, tired but unwilling to give in to sleep. He didn’t want it to end, whatever this prolonged moment of closeness with Shiro was. So when his limbs began to feel heavy, his eyes beginning to droop, he forced himself out of his seat, and reached out a hand for Shiro.

“You want to go for a walk?”

~~

  
  


The gardens behind the altean palace was nothing like what Keith was used to. Daibazaal, while beautiful, didn’t have much of the soft pastels, the endless rows of greenery and delicate flowers.

He felt a little out of place. But Shiro, with his snowy white hair and altean arm, might as well have been a statue risen to stand in these gardens. Keith said as much, too tired to put any restraint on his honesty. Shiro laughed, and Keith basked in the warmth it brought him to hear the sound.

“A statue that’s been used for sword practice, maybe.” Shiro huffed, and gestured to himself. “I’m not exactly a smooth marble piece.”

Keith stepped in front of Shiro, making him halt on the ice blue gravel path they’d found themselves taking. Shiro’s eyes went wide, and he looked down to where Keith had placed an open palm on his chest. He traced the length of Keith’s arm, gaze gliding from Keith’s hand to his face.

“Keith? You okay?” Shiro furrowed his brows when Keith didn’t offer a response, bringing his flesh hand up to thread his fingers with Keith’s.

Keith’s heart kicked like a wild animal trying to break out of his rib cage. He didn’t know what he was doing, what his plan was when he stopped Shiro in his tracks and got this close. He’d tried so hard to plan out his speech, the jumble of words falling in on itself and leaving him with nothing.

Shiro’s fingers squeezed at Keith’s, and it sent a pulse straight through him. He swallowed audibly, looking straight into the silver eyes he’d dreamt of having close like this for more than half his life.

“Shiro, I-“

He couldn’t get it out, couldn’t pick the words he needed to express what he had to say. He was finally there, finally ready to just fucking go for it, and it was like he never learned the English language in the first place.

There was no bracing himself for the tilt of Shiro’s head, the press of soft, dry lips slotting with his own and stepping above and beyond whatever words Keith was supposed to be speaking.

He gasped, first in surprise. Then in pleasure. Keith sunk into the kiss, toes curling in the pebbles underneath his bare feet, fingers clutching the worn tank top clinging to Shiro’s frame. 

It was like someone twisted every knob to max, colors bursting behind his eyelids and Shiro’s signature smell enveloping Keith where he stood.

When they broke apart, only inches separated them and yet somehow, Keith already missed him.

“What about Curtis?” The words left him before he could think, giving in to the need to know how much was left. How long, how much work before they could be together.

Cool metal knuckles brushed over his cheek, and Shiro leaned in to press their foreheads together before he spoke.

“He moved out, four months ago.” Shiro spoke so softly, but there was a touch of disbelief in his voice. Like he couldn’t believe where they were. “I tried to tell you, but you wouldn’t take my calls.”

Keith couldn’t even begin to think of a response, once more frozen standing there with the words stuck on his tongue. 

“Keith I’m so sorry.” Shiro moved both his hands to cradle Keith’s face, gentle and slightly trembling. Keith just stood there, dumbstruck and feeling just so many things at once, he had no clue where to even start. “For being such a jackass, and a coward. I somehow got it into my head you’d be better off without me and-“

Shiro stopped mid ramble to take a long, steadying breath. He was nervous, and a mess. Keith couldn’t get enough of it.

“It’s always been you, Keith. Ever since the beginning.”

~~

  
  


“I think you’re wrong.” Keith’s lips slipped over sweat slick skin as he spoke, hot and positively divine under his touch.

He had long since stopped believing he could have this, Takashi Shirogane naked and willing below him. But now that they were there, it was like they’d never been anywhere else. 

He felt Shiro’s muscles shift under his hands, back arching to meet his mouth where he was continuously sucking bright marks into the skin on Shiro’s chest. 

He made a questioning noise at Keith’s sudden words, lost for words at this point. Keith placed a last, lingering kiss over Shiro’s heart before he pulled back to meet his gaze.

“Marble is limestone that’s been exposed to high temperatures and pressure. The process makes it strong, and creates its ripples.” He traced a long, jagged scar on Shiro’s abdomen with his fingers, eyes dropping to follow the movement as he continued on to the next. They were so many, and Keith couldn’t wait to get his hands and lips and  _ teeth _ on each and every one of them. “You went through hell and came out stronger. These lines on you? They’re ripples. They show how extraordinary you are, and make you unique.”

“Keith…” Shiro’s voice was tight, barely more than a whisper. Keith looked up at him, took in the soft expression on his face. He was so insanely beautiful, warm grey eyes hooded and cheeks flushed, sweat pearling on his brow. Lips red and swollen, bitten raw by Keith’s teeth. 

A quiet, punched out little moan matched Keith’s own when he shifted on top of Shiro, leaning in to kiss him but also making the hard cock inside him drag against his walls. Shiro’s hands slid from their place on Keith’s hips, down to cup his asscheeks in a firm grip, spreading him wide and making him gasp into Shiro’s mouth.

They sunk into each other, starting a slow pace. Keith didn’t even try to restrain himself, let the sounds escape him freely as the pleasure built inside him with every deep thrust of Shiro’s cock. 

It didn’t take them long to lose their grace, Keith rocking down to meet the roll of Shiro’s hips with increasing speed, until the thrusts turned fast and shallow, uncoordinated and messy but  _ perfect _ .

Keith came undone under Shiro’s touch, spilling over his flesh hand and stomach with a high pitched whine he couldn’t have stopped from making if he tried. His orgasm shook him almost violently, had him writhing and clamping down on Shiro tightly. It was enough to bring Shiro over the edge as well, panting into a sloppy, open mouthed kiss as Keith milked him for all he was worth.

~~

  
  


Keith saw his future in the quantum abyss. He saw fingers tracing over scars, a wedding in the altean royal gardens. Sleepy kisses in Altas quarters, fingers touching under tables at a galran banquet.

All the things he saw, they lived, and every moment in between.

**Author's Note:**

> Lol this is not what I expected this prompt to turn into but here we are!
> 
> Comments make my silly heart go boom boom, talk to me! 🖤✨


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